Tonight I went with Mediterranean cuisine for dinner: pitas, tabbouleh, and lentils! The lentils were the very first recipe I have made from Mediterranean Diabetes Cookbook! The tabbouleh comes from a previous recipe on Eat Chic, which can be found here. The cold tabbouleh paired with the hot lentils and warm pita made the perfect delicious combination for dinner; not to mention it just so happened that it’s also all vegan!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dry lentils
• 2 1/2 cup water
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1/2 yellow onion, chopped
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

Heat 1 cup lentils and 1 1/2 cup water in a saucepan until boiling. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. In a large saucepan, combine lentils, tomatoes, onion, salt, coriander, and 1 cup water. Bring to a boil and allow to simmer for 30 minutes. Serve hot with pitas, rice, or couscous. I omitted the cilantro from my recipe because I wasn’t really in the mood for cilantro, but I may add some in to my leftovers for later!

Can’t wait to enjoy leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

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This morning I cooked up some Sunday morning brunch to start the week off right! Before I retire my Eat Drink and Be Vegan cookbook to the shelf for a while I decided to make one last recipe. Since I had some left over Celestial Crème from last weekend, I decided to make crepes so that I could use the rest of the crème as a topping!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 Tbsp ground flax seed
• 1 1/2 cup plain soy milk (or regular skim milk)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 Tbsp canola oil
• 1 cup spelt flour*
• 1/8 tsp sea salt
• Oil to coat pan
• 1-2 cups strawberries, thinly sliced (you can use any fruit you like)

In small bowl whisk together flax seed and milk. In large bowl combine flour and salt. Add wet mixture to dry mixture and whisk to combine. Oil a nonstick skillet and place over medium heat. Scoop 1/4 cup of batter onto pan and immediately remove from heat as you move the pan around to spread the batter to make a large circle. Return pan to heat and allow to cook about 1 minute until crepe is dry on top and easy to flip.

Using a wide spatula flip crepe and cook on other side for another minute. Continue making crepes until batter is all used up. Fill half of the crepe with fruit and fold over. Top with Celestial Crème. Recipe makes about 10 small crepes. These crepes are really yummy and super easy!

You can also use this recipe to make savory crepes filled with cheese, veggies, and herbs. Just omit the vanilla extract in the recipe above. I may use my extra crepes for a savory lunch or dinner crepe later in the week!

*Note: spelt is a non-hybrid primitive relative of our present day wheat that dates back more than 9,000 years. Spelt has a unique nutty flavor and because of its high water solubility, its vital nutrients are quickly absorbed into the body. Spelt flour can be used as a substitute to any recipe calling for wheat flour.

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Last night I went to one of the many summer festivals going on around Chicago, the Lincoln Avenue in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. The festival featured local bands on five different stages as well as over 200 vendors offering food, beer, art, and carnival games. Despite the 90 degree weather, the festival was a lot of fun and a great spot to people watch and meet up with friends!

At the festival I picked up a quick dinner: a glass of cold sangria and a 10” Italian sausage! With the smell of summertime grilling in the air I could not pass up the vendor cooking up these Italian sausages!

Check it out! This baby was almost embarrassing to carry around the festival!

But it sure was delicious and well worth the stares from the crowd. Topped with green peppers and onions, I couldn’t have asked for a better summertime dinner. Of course I was only able to get about half way through it before passing it off to the boyfriend, but nevertheless, it was amazing!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

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Read Chic is officially updated! I wanted to do a quick post about the last book I read, The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.

The Last Lecture is the inspiring story of Randy Pausch, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, and his fight against pancreatic cancer. While he eventually lost his battle with cancer, Pausch lived a fulfilling life and shared his personal life lessons with his students during his last lecture. Pausch had an incredibly positive outlook on the world and taught others how to live in the moment and take nothing for granted. His book The Last Lecture is an extension of the actual last lecture given at Carnegie Mellon. Pausch’s last lecture, entitled “Really Achieving your Childhood Dreams”, captivated the world in 2007 and later became a book in 2008. Check out the lecture below.

Both Pausch’s lecture and book have a tremendous amount of valuable advice that audiences of any age can benefit from. After watching and enjoying the lecture I couldn’t wait to read the book. I absolutely loved it and would recommend the book, as well as checking out the last lecture video above, to anyone and everyone looking for an enlightening and truly inspiring story about embracing the important things in life!

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I will be the first to admit that I have an addiction to books, especially books about food. So it’s no surprise that I came home from the bookstore this week with Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar! There is something about vegan cookies that I love. Since I rarely buy butter or eggs at the grocery store, whenever I want to make cookies I feel like I don’t have any of the necessary ingredients. Making vegan cookies without butter or eggs allows me to enjoy a sweet treat using the foods I already have available in my kitchen! From the authors who brought you the famous Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar offers 100 dairy-free cookie recipes that anyone can enjoy!

What I love about this book is that there section at the beginning devoted to substitution options. If ever you find that you do not have a certain ingredient on hand, the substitution index offers alternatives that can be used in place of the missing ingredient! Of course I also love all of the mouthwatering photographs sprinkled throughout the book as well! I cannot wait to try out some of these recipes! If things go well. may have to check out Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World next!

Has anyone read either of these books or made any recipes from them? Let me know what you think!

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